Child hygiene / by S. Josephine Baker.

  • Sara Josephine Baker
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Child hygiene / by S. Josephine Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Responsibility of Parenthood.—Closely allied to the question of the relation of the home to the child comes the relation of the parents to the child. It may almost be con¬ sidered as being the same thing, and, indeed, in its ethical significance it cannot be separated, but from the legal point of view the responsibilities of parenthood have been placed upon a more definite and concrete basis than we may be able to determine in the case of the home. There is no civilized country in the world to-day that does not have in either its common or its statutory laws a provision where¬ by parents are required to furnish food, clothing, shelter, and medical attendance to their minor children. It is an indication of the advance of our responsibility toward child life that nearly all countries now provide that parents may not neglect their children or be cruel to them. Society as a whole has altered its attitude toward child labor and toward the cruelty that was formerly encountered in many institu¬ tions for children and in manv schools. Associations for the prevention of cruelty to children, or their prototypes, exist practically everywhere. There has been a tendency in later years, particularly since women have acquired the right of franchise, to place the legal responsibility of parenthood equally upon father and mother. The Norwegian law and the Children’s Code of Minnesota both recognize the claim of the so-called “illegitimate child” to the name and property of his father. There are still countries in Europe whose laws give the father full control over the destiny of his children, but such laws are becoming obsolete so rapidly that we need do no more than refer to them. As women are more and more becoming an integral part of their communities and acquir¬ ing the rights of citizenship, the laws relating to the par¬ ental responsibilities to children are being changed so that fathers and mothers have an equal share in the control and care of their children. There are, however, certain divisions in this control that still exist. It is generally con¬ ceded that it is the father’s duty to provide the material
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